Since 2005 I spend much less time on portals, therefore upgrades will become more and more sporadic ....
Rather got to either:
- CMS Matrix, Good index of open source CMS (2006)
- opensourceCMS This site was created to give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best PHP/Mysql open source and free php/mysql based software systems in the world. You can log in as the administrator to any site here, thus allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs. (!) Rebuilt every 2 hours / 2004. GOOD !!
"Portals" is used in a wide sense here. We focus specifically on
collaborative information portals, but sometimes have pointers
to any sort of portal software, e.g. enterprise application integration
(EAI software), "smart" Forums and News Pages, Enterprise Information Portals, even a little bit of CSCW or Groupware systems.
On the Internet we can see the emergence of what I call C3MS systems:
Community, Collaboration and Content Management Systems.
If you are interested in the pedagogical use of portals to support activity-based teaching
(vs. "content transfer") there is one place to go: tecfaseed.unige.ch ! It's one of our PostNuke Portals and is open to a public at large.
You can find more variety in
this older
page. We specifically do NOT target educational platforms in this page. We just mention a few free and/or non-behavioristic platforms.
1. Portals @ TECFA
Tecfa doesn't have a central portal, but we might use some portal technology to re-implement our
own and dead little Virtual Campus.
Inside our traditional large website we do run some portals (PostNuke, phpWebSite and PhpWebLog, phpWiki, Swiki and more) and we may add a portal add-on to our homepage (in summer 2002) if we have time...
Documentation:
2. Documentation
(this is outdated and not complete now - DKS / feb 2005)
- The ArsDigita Community System Education Solution (paper by C. Meeks and R. Mangel).
- uPortal: A Common Portal Reference FrameworkSyllabus Web article by Bernard W. Gleason
- Collaborative E-Learning: The Right Approach by K. Gilroy
- Exploring the Possibilities of Information Portals. A few questions and answers
- Why Write about the Weblogs ?
- Portals and Frameworks for Web Based Education and Computational
Science by Geoffrey C Fox. (very technical overview on portals paper)
- A Catalog of CoWeb Uses [CoWeb is Wikiwiki-like system]
- Installing and Using Collaborative Websites (CSCL Tutorial @ CSCL 2002)
- Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) using Manila, a WebLog entry by David Davies
- Weblogs, part II: A Swiss Army website? by Chris Ashley (good article)
- Blogging Goes Legit, Sort Of (Wired article by N. Shachtman, slashdotted)
- Understanding educational technology interoperability standards: An annotated resource list, by Raymond Yee (2002), Berkeley Computing and Communications, 12, 13-14.
- ePortfolios " Electronic portfolios (also referred to as eportfolios or webfolios) are gaining recognition as a valuable tool for learners, instructors, and academic organizations" by George Siemens, 2004
- the weblog handbook, Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog, by Rebecca Blook. This is a real book
- Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content by Biz Stone
- Use the blog, Luke, by Steven Johnson, Salon.com
- Weblogs: A New Source of News. Blogs will supplement, not supplant, traditional media, Online Journalism Review
article by J.D. Lasica.
- Triumph of the Weblogs by Kevin Werbach
- Weblogs: A History and Perspective (9/2000 by Rebecca Blood
- The state of the blog. 3 Interviews with Evan Williams (Pyra/Blogger)
- A Closer Look at Weblogs by Cindy Curling / LLRX
- Life On The Internet: Could Blogging Assist KM? by Amy D. Wohl
- Elektronisches Publizieren: Portale und Microportale A site with articles (partly in English)
- Bienvenue Nouveau visiteur. Guidelines fait pour SpioLattic
- Blogs, Learning Circuits short article by Jay Cross
- Technorati Technorati provides search and notification services for active content on the World Live Web (RSS feeds, weblogs)
(too little, just a few so you can learn some vocabulary)
(by NO means complete !)
Most small portals in which we are interested here do not implement "web services" in standardized form. However, this might change, so I start collecting some information here. IGNORE this part, if you are just interested in "leight-weight portals".
Players
There are many players in this field.
Standards and alike
Things do get complicated, e.g. here is a probably wrong example webservice "stack" made up from the very little I know (See also What's Next for Learning Technology Systems and Standards? by Daniel R. Rehak, CMU.
( HTTP -> ) SOAP -> UDDI -> WSDL | WSIF ? -> WSFL ? -> -> ebXML? | WSIL ? -> WSRP? -> Portal
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) 1.1, W3C note. "SOAP is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information in a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses". Note DKS: This is generally the lowest Service Layer (just on top of HTTP) and tells how to describe messages that are sent or received.
- Web Services Description Language (WSDL), W3C Note. WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints (methodes/calls) operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information.
- WSFL (Web Services Flow Language) article from IBM. WSFL is an XML language (compatible with SOAP, UDDI & WSDL) for the description of the overall process logic of Web Services. See also and Cover Pages about his
- Apache references to the WSIF (Web Services Invocation Framework) . This is a description of APIs to invoke Web Services described in WSDL. (Can, but does not need to be built on top of SOAP).
- WSIL (Web Services Inspection Language) WS-Inspection specification provides an XML format for assisting in the inspection of a site for available services and a set of rules for how inspection related information should be made available for consumption (IBM/Microsoft)
- UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) enables organizations to (I) discover each other by a directory of service providers and services, and (II) find out what services are available
- WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portals): XML and Web services standard that will allow the plug-n-play of visual, user-facing Web services with portals or other intermediary Web applications. (Oasis led initiative)
- ebXML Messaging Service Specification (OASIS led) provides a secure method for exchanging electronic business transactions using the Internet. (This is a rather big project with several sub-specifications). See D. Mertz "Understanding ebXML" at developerworks/IBM.
Papers and links
3. Software
See the Links section for other lists.
- Our interests for portals shows in our SEED Project and related publications.
- Upcase: UpCase (User Platform of Collaborative Applications for the Social Economy) is an interesting "Portal installer". You install this and then installing PostNuke, PhpWiki, PhBB, etc will be much easier (2003, not tested @ Tecfa). English, Français, Dutch
- ACS: ACS from Ars Digita, Java/Oracle based collaborative C3MS, well done portal in Java, core is free. The company went broke, but it seems that RedHad has picked up ACS (7/2002).
- Aspslash: ASPSlash (commercial)
- Attila: Attila French publication kit for personal pages. GPL'd engine that does the basics (addition: private zones).
- Bitflux: Bitflux, php-based CMS (promising Swiss initiative, not tested yet)
- CommPort: CommPort - A "Community Portal" generator that can be tailored for any location, Open Source, Perl + MysQL
- DaCode: daCode. French portal used on LinuxFR, has news, comments, votes, calendar, etc. [tested @ TECFA, works]
- Docbuilder Cheap CMS, IE CMS 5.5+ support
- Drupal: Drupal content management/discussion engine suitable to setup a news-driven community or portal site, GPL based on slashcode and scoop. Modular well designed [tested @ TECFA, works ]
- envolotion: eNvolution is Post Post-Nuke. Not tested, we wait and see what will happen to Postnuke (May 2003). Most PN modules should work with Envolution. Main difference right now seems to be a stronger theming engine.
- Everything Engine: Everything engine (?)
- Geeklog: Geeklog. Like phpWebLog, but with a sophisticated & secure user system. [tested @ TECFA, works]
- Glasscode: Glasscode, Java servlets (no commercial download may be hard to find)
- GoupITEngine: GoupITEngine. Modular knowledge management / Information Portal (free for personal use, academic and commercial prices)
- Greymatter: Greymatter Free Weblog system
- HPE (Headline Portal Engine) : HPE (Headline Portal Engine) information portal with special news grabbing features
- H2O Project H2O is an "innovative approach to online discussion that encourages measured, thoughtful discourse in a way that traditional threaded messaging systems cannot." From Harward Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Can be tested here. (3/2003) - servlet based ? - not tested at Tecfa yet.
- Jetspeed: Jetspeed Open Source implementation of an Enterprise Information Portal using Java and XML, Jakarta Project
Based on Turbine (servlet
based framework for secure web applications)
- Joomla, a fork of Mambo became one of the hot portals in 2005. Seems to be the good choice now but I can't tell since I look at other things than portals currently .... (2006).
- Lenya: Apache Lenya. Portal based on the Cocoon Framework (Java). Not just another Java-based thing. With the incorporated Bitflux Editor users can edit arbitrary XML in WYSIWYG and validate a document against a Relax NG schema while it is being edited. [2005, not tested]. Probably needs some Java skills (e.g. understanding of the Cocoon architecture under the hood) and certainly XML/XSLT know-how.
- Mambo: Mambo. An other php/Mysql Portal. Supposed to be easy to administer and having cooler looks. [tested @ TECFA, works]. Note: Joomla is a fork of this and gaining in popularity (2006)
- MovableType MovableType is probably the best free personal weblog system (in spring 2003). Works with some Blog clients.
- MyPhpNuke: MyPhpNuke, an other PhPNuke spin-off [tested @ TECFA in 2002, worked]
- Mycomponents.com: Mycomponents.com produces free OpenJoda, an instant Java servlet 2.3 based portal starter kit, looks promising and it is Geneva-based :)
- Open ACS: OpenACS, based on ACS from ArsDigita(above), runs under AOLServer and Postgres. An e-learning infrastructure for this seems to be under development (dotLRN)
- OpenPHPNuke. It's roots are PHPNuke 4 and then MyPHPNuke. [Not tested]
- PHPSiteAdmin: PHPSiteAdmin Portal content management system
- PHPortal: PHPortal (alpha in 07/2002), is a 100% PHP TTW (Through-the-Web) application builder. Some ressemblance to Zope.
- PSlash: PSlash Slash-dot like Webportal system
- Personal Weblog : Personal Weblog . A Weblog and just a weblog. Made for easy integration into an existing homepage.
- PhpNuke: PhpNuke PHP-Nuke is a news portal system, very popular and increasing number of features/modules (thatWare spinoff I think) Nuketest.com. Sponsored by Mandrake, but see also OpenPhPNuke and Postnuke (the latter is probably the most popular GPLed "Nuke" now).
- PhpSlash: phpSlash. Templated Slash-like system
- PhpWebLog: PhpWebLog Portal software, weblog-oriented and much less features than nukes, template based. See also romarin.org (phpweblog addons) [tested & used @ TECFA in 2001, works but seems to be NO LONGER maintened since php 4.0]
- PhpWebSite: phpWebSite (=phpWS) (phpNuke spinoff). Probably THE hot portal in early summer 2001. See also
PhPWebSite PluginForge and
phpwsthemes.
[tested @ TECFA, works]
- Plone: Plone is built on top of Zope and suited as a document publishing system, a portal server and as a groupware tool for collaboration between separately located entities. GPL license, [not tested here]
- Plugin Factory: Plugin Factory, Plugins for phpWebsite, php-nuke and myphpnuke
- PostNuke: PostNuke, an other PhPNuke spin-off (started 5/01, high-quality alpha in 10/01). -
pnDevelopment -
Source Forge Site for PostNuke.
See also:
Postnuke france (french language files)
and Post-nuke.net (german pn site with good support !)
and www.postnuke.de (the other good german site)
and mods.postnuke,
and themes.postnuke,
and EduNuke.com (PN for education),
and Boomtchak (french CMS support site)
and Trollix (PN forum plug, french site)
and Designs4nuke
and SwissNukes.com
and Xexpress (CMS for static PN papges)
and pnapi.com (pn support site).
[ PN 0.7x has been tested & is used @ TECFA. We recommend it for larger sites and more complex scenarios. For simpler things we deployed PhpWebLog so far. PhpWebSite is in between and quite faster than Postnuke. ]
- Publish Jr.: Publish Jr., Simple CMS (using Perl/Php scripts ?)
- Rhea: Red Hat Enterprise Applications is an open-source suite of products that includes content management, portal and web development software
- SPIP: SPIP Système de Publication pour l'Internet Partagé - Nice french CMS
- Scoop: Scoop, the engine behind Kuro5hin.org
- SiG: SiG is a set of PHP Classes to facilitate the creation and maintenance of an Information Portal. It currently includes: Site Management, Content Management, Rich Content support, Security features, and more.
- Site@School Site@School is a Content Management System (CMS) to manage and maintain the website of a primary school. It is Open Source Software under the General Public license. [not tested so far @ TECFA, but certainly looks good, 2/2004]
- SiteManager: SiteManager is an Open Source Web Application Framework written in PHP (Needs programming experience)
- SlashCode: SlashCode. Technology behind Slashdot.
- Software 4 Open Communities: Software 4 Open Communities, provides Web community
portal software in the scope of the Semantic Web initiative, making
possible distributed context-sensitive online publishing and
retrieval in self-organised groups of interest (interesting, not tested yet, 7/2002)
- Squishdot: Squishdot, Zope-based publishing and discussion product (plugin for the Zope application server)
- Syncato: Sancato Syncato is a micro content management system designed to extract the maximum potential from the content of your data. All data in Syncato is stored as XML within a native XML database and is searchable using XPath. This includes the ability to execute XPath via a URL from within your browser.
- ThatWare: Slashdot-like engine. It is based on Apache/PHP3/MySQL, [Dead project ??]
- Twig Web Information Gateway: Twig Web Information Gateway (mail, contact, scheduling, news, todo, links)
- Typo3: Typo3 is a free Open Source content management system for enterprise purposes on the web and in intranets. (PHP/MySQL based).
- WebGui: WebGui " ...built to allow average business users to build and maintain complex Web sites. ( CMS with good reputation, Moz1.3 support, not tested yes)
- Xoops: Xoops Nuke inspired/clone with more modularity (not tested here)
- Cicernone: Cicerone Corporate Information System 1.10 - multi-platform, multi-server, multi-database, Web-based corporate information system
- Xaraya: Xaraya is a Post Post-Nuke (Beta in May 2003). Probably more CMS than community oriented.
If you just want to agregate News feed, you don't necessarily need a portal
- MagpieRSS provides an XML-based (expat) RSS parser in PHP. Note: there are many other RSS/PHP classes
- Some more RSS links we collected are in staf18 Links
This section needs work ! (5/2003)
- BlogPlanet is a blog client written in J2ME primarily for smartphones. It lets users make new posts to their blog, edit them later, and delete them. It supports all BloggerAPI-compliant XML-RPC supporting systems (Blogger.com, MovableType, B2, Radio Userland).
- Weblogger.com. There is an API for into this from other programs/clients. (If I am not wrong, others implement this API too)
- A review of Blogging APIs (by d2r, may 2003)
- TTW WYSIWYG Editors. This is a list of "through the web" - it works within a browser editors. IE + Mozilla.
- BitFlfux Editor is a browser based Wysiwyg XML Editor (works with Mozilla and XML, XSD, XSLT, CSS configuration files)
If you don't know what a wiki is:
- Swiki/CoWeb, collaborative hypertext environment (wiki-lik, see below), download is here [tested @ TECFA, works]. Voir aussi:
developement français
- Beacon by Barnraiser
is a sort of wiki with a tags-based classification scheme.
- TikiWiki Tiki is a complex (in features) but easy to use CMS / portal system based on a Wiki. Includes a work flow system called Galaxia. (Tested @ tecfa, works nicely, not yet in production here)
- WikiWikiWeb. Collaborative web site tool. The "original".
- phpWiki [tested @ TECFA, works].
This also exists as plugin for postnuke and phpweblog (but you have to find it on their site ... ).
- Twiki. A wiki with a good revision system (like phpwiki) and a plugin architecture (many interesting plugins are available). Other features: collections, file attachments, structured contens (form input), access control, etc. Also allows for a more portal oriented design of pages.
- MoinMoin Wiki. Python-based, multi-lingual, not tested but has a very good reputation. Evolved from PikiPiki and has more features. (Python-based)
- InterWiki, inter Wiki links (InterMap)
- LDP WikiText, The Linux Documentation Project's Wiki (stores in XML ? or has a least a Filter)
- MediaWiki. The engine behind Wikipedia
- Wiki Type Framework (version 0.20 on 7/2002, not tested)
- JSP Wiki (not tested, has very good additional stuff, e.g. and XML-RPC interface, or a links generator for input to the TGWiki browser.)
- ErfurtWiki One (!) PhP file. Conceived as a library allowing quick integration into existing web sites, because it does not enforce a specific page layout
- Xwiki. Advanced Wiki system that also provides free hosting. This is a fork from Twiki. (en français)
- UniWakka Wiki Farm UniWakka is a Wiki Engine derived from WakkaWiki (dead link), a light-weight, easy to install and to configure collaborative editing software for web content. Derived from Wakka-0.1.3-dev, UniWakka is mostly intended for an university or scientific environment. [12/2004 NOT tested]
- DocBookWiki can display DocBook documents online. Different from the other applications, which convert a DocBook document into HTML first, in order to display it online, DocBookWiki converts it on the fly. DocBookWiki can also be used to edit a DocBook document online, from the web. Editing is done one section at a time. [2005, very interesting, but not tested so far]
- Dokuwiki is very nice wiki, that has some useful features like section editing, rss/atom feeds, locking, very easy export of pages to text/xhtml/xhtml-body. It is file-based and does NOT use a database. [2005]
- Open Source Content
Management Conf, Berkeley, sept, 2002
- A PHPNuke 5.01 and PostNuke 0.61 Comparison
- Blog Rolling Competitions by Brain Jepson (comparing slashdot, freshmeat etc.)
- Content Management System Evaluation (eZ, phpWebSite, Slash, Spine,
- Community consensus on CMS Results (fed 2002 survey on phpNuke, SlashCode, PostNuke, myPHPNuke, XOOPS)
- Two Open Source content management packages reviewed (Everything2 and LiveJournal)
- Microcontent News (contains a blogging software roundup)
Commercial or free. (am not familiar with these, and there must be many more).
- Free Conversant is a
WebLog system with other CMS functionalities for small sites). Free hosting ! Commercial if you want more options / members
- Manila, a component of Userland Frontier content management system (900$/year - 300$/year academics). There is
also Radio Userland, a $40 package/year software + hosting (Probably THE most easy solution for weblogging)
- Blogger
- LiveJournal.com
I am not familiar with these.
- NvpHost (french , hébergeur Nuke et Xoops)
See also Information & News Portals, increasingly they serve just anything, including applications.
Note: Commercial stuff like BEA Weblogic, IBM WebSphere, IPlanet, Domino
Caucus Systems , Microsoft SharePoint Services (WSS, see also at microsoft) etc. are not mentionned here. I hate to say this, but the new MS Sharepoint Portal Server with its WEB Parts can do a lot and seems to be less complicated than other "big" infrastructures.
For more free stuff, see other places, e.g. Web Environments on Source forge
- Infozone,
Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) open source project, built on
top of Ozone, an object-oriented XML DB. Has several other components, e.g. Prowler, a CMS engine and framework
- [quiper] Web Toolkit toolkit for creating very fast dynamic Web applications (not tested)
- uPortal ree, sharable portal under development by institutions of higher-education. (sponsored by JASIG
- DigiOnline sells WebWeaver, e.g. used for Educa and/or , the Swiss school server.
- Campus Pipeline, like uPortal but commercial, closed source
- Endhydra.org Open Source
Java/XML application server (not tested, one of the more popular ones)
- JANX The
Java and XML Application Environment
- Zope, Python-based application/groupware server See this good overview article: Zope - a Swiss Army Knife for the Web? by Paul Browning. See also: ZopeNewbies.net. Several portal systems have been built on top of Zope, e.g. Plone, the "cartable electronique".
- Eridu Opensource Web-Based Groupware. Outlook like they claim
- PHProjekt PHProjekt is a modular application for the coordination of
group activities and to share informations and document via
intranet and internet. Needs php4 and MySQL
- phpGroupware.org Very promising project, beta status (3/2001)
- Mozilla is a platform with groupware potential. Check modzdev once in a while
- Tutos 'The ultimate team organization Software', source forge project of the Month, March 2003 :): Includes calendar, projects with task management, timetracking, bugtracking.
(well: mostly XML-based, some traditional commercial CMS also)
- COCOON is one good way to go. It is one of our preferred XML publication
framework, see our Cocoon
Pointers ! ... but it's NOT a CMS or DMS
- Conglomerate is a complete system for working with documents. It lets the user create, revise, archive, search, convert and publish information in several media, using a single source document. (Linux Gnome/KDE client + database) - Not tested
- The Rich Men's Document Management System:The Rich Men's Document Management System Also called
rm -d
ms :), in alalphapha 5/00 (not tested)
- Conglomerate:Conglomerate
Conglomerate is a project to create a complete structured
information authoring, management, archival, revision control and
transformation system (not tested, found here)
- AxKit:AxKitAn XML
Delivery ToolKit (suite of tools for the Apache httpd server
running mod_perl), not tested, but looks good
- SIM:SIM Structured Information
Manager, commercial product, can inndex and manage large volumes of
structured text (i.e., it is an XML native database). Not
tested
- Tamino:Tamino
Commercial XML database
- Prism:Prism
(DB Sevlet Engine). Includes DB Prism/Cocoon Content Management
System based on Oracle CMS.
- Author-it:Author-it Authoring,
management, and publishing of on-line and printed documents from a
single source. (1/2001 - XML output soon)
- Exist:Exist EXist is a
repository and retrieval engine for XML documents (built on top of
mysql)
- XyEnterprise:XyEnterprise -
commercial CMS
- SIM:SIM The Structured
Information Manager, Commercial CMS/ XML database system
- Three Faces of XML
in Zope - Services, Documents, Datastores (good ideas
included!)
- SemanticWeb.org:SemanticWeb.org has
some very good pointers on more general related issues (e.g. Ontologies)
- eZPublish:eZ Publish
- PHP Content Management System:PHP Content Management System. German development.
- Infocetera:Infocetera web-based information management system (payware)
- Slide:Slide is a Apache/Jakarta Project for low-level CMS, implements WebDAV
- XMLcmNEW:XMLcmNEW, free (and simple?) XML-based CMS (needs Java 1.3, not tested). Webreference has an article on this.
- Reptile:Reptile Peer-to-peer, "reputation-enhanced personal and distributed portal". Interesting concept, not tested.
- Documentum:Documentum Commercial CMS
- Live Linx:Live Linx, Commercial CMS (single-source publishing to many formats)
- ComTech:ComTech, CMS consulting
- instant portal manager:instant portal manager. based upon XML technology, open source written with ASP
- Silva Silva is a completely browser based publication system for creating publications for the web, paper, and other media. Uses XML - not tested oct /2002
- xSiteable is a complete small-to-medium-size site development / prototyping kit created in XSLT, available on a number of platforms and operating systems. It has a simple Notation language for content called xSiteable Notation, utilizing Topic maps (XTM) for structure, binding and other assorted cleverness. [So it's not a portal, but a sort of "compiler"
- The Literary Machine, Quote from the website: " The Literary Machine is a dynamic archive and an idea management tool aimed at creative thinking -- built especially with the writer in mind. It is packed with indexing and display techniques so general and potent that you will use it as an intelligence center" (not tested, sept 2004)
- CERN Document Server Software (CDSware) is the software developed by, maintained by, and used at, the CERN Document Server. It allows you to run your own electronic preprint server, your own online library catalogue or a document system on the web. It complies with the Open Archives Initiative metadata harvesting protocol (OAI-PMH) and uses MARC 21 as its underlying bibliographic standard. [Linux, very difficult to install under other Unixes]
- DSPace. The DSpace digital repository system captures, stores, indexes, preserves, and distributes digital research material. Simlar as CDSware, uses a simpler classification system, but is much easier to install (Java-based)
- Chandler s a Personal Information Manager (PIM) intended for use in everyday information and communication tasks, such as composing and reading email, managing an appointment calendar and keeping a contact list. Because of the ease with which Chandler users can share information with others, Chandler might be called the first Interpersonal Information Manager. 2004, not tested
- MoonEdit. Cooperative multi-user text editing over the internet, Multiple text cursors visible on the screen, Remote text editing without latency, etc. Freeware for non-commercial user [2005, not tested].
- eGroupWare - Enterprise Collaboration System (php/SQL based). Souceforge project of the month Mai 2004. - not tested so far @ Tecfa (certainly gets good reviews)
- OpenWFE - Open WorkFlow Engine (Java based, BSD License). OpenWFE not only features a workflow engine, but also a full Business Process Management Suite.
As released, it features a Worklist component for storing workitems (tasks) for participants and a Reactor component, for automatic participants.
It also features Droflo, a web based flow designer. (not tested yet, but someday i certainly will)
- WfMOpen is a J2EE based implementation of a workflow facility (workflow engine) as proposed by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) and the Object Management Group (OMG). (not tested )
- Share360 commercial groupware (60 days trial).
- OpenFlow, OpenFlow is an flexible workflow engine, open source, see also Galaxia, its integration with TikiWiki.. (not tested @ TECFA)
- BSCW Basic Support for
Cooperative Work. Not a portal, but good upload/download, forums, group
management and more.
- project forum is "... an easy-to-use solution for flexible workgroup collaboration and coordination of projects and teams over the web". Free + commercial version. (not tested here)
- phpCollab Manage web projects with team collaboration, users management, tasks and projects tracking, files approval tracking, project sites clients access, customer relationship management.
- PHPProjekt Free PHP Groupware, includes project management (some site info in German but supports 17 languages)
- TUTOS, "the ultimate team organization software, a webbased groupware or ERP/CRM system to manage events/calendars,addresses,teams,projects,tasks,bugs,mailboxes,documents and your time spent with these things (not tested). See also www.tutos.org
- Digital Document Discourse Environment. Free toolkit for document-centric discussion from Openuniversity
- Bookmark4U, bookmarking environment (not tested)
- The current state of File Sharing. Overview Article at infoAnarchy
- f2wHelpdes Project. (needs Zope and PostGres)
- Mantis bugtracking system (php/MysQL based)
- CourseForum commercial (?) quote: "lets you and your students host discussions and share knowledge, adding interaction to your courses. Create, share, and talk about ideas, Q&A, research, student portfolios, project work, and more. CourseForum delivers the ease of use, flexibility, and accountability needed for today's courses."
- TECOASapplication to interactively browse and discuss a document. It is intended to help co-authoring of papers with remote partners, but is also adapted to small seminars (with all participants in the same room), or for online discussions [3/2004 - not tested]
- Das Classic Forum. The Classic Forum is a forum project in the classical sense of the word "forum". This means a classic threaded view. According to the web site: very good performance. (not tested, but I certainly think that this type of forum is way more useful in education that typical modern forums à la phpBB).
- PhPPetitions.org, Un serveur de pétitions, facile à mettre en oeuvre, facile à personnaliser. [good features, seems to work fine. 2006]
This section is BY NO MEANS complete. There are other pages for this,
e.g. the Comparison of Web Based Course Environments @ edutech.ch or Bruce Landon's
Online educational delivery applications
or the entries at DMOZ.
None of these commercial systems are deployed at TECFA. The only commercial educational platform
we ran (so that our students gain some experience in the area) was WebCT. We cancelled in 2002/2003.
We now use either Claroline or Moodle (both work fine) or community portals
like PostNuke (6/2003).
For an alternative list of free software look at UNESCO Free Software Portal
or Scott Leslie's List of Open Source Course Management Systems.
SchoolForge may have some additional pointers. In particular Edupacks for Linux.
See also ELBA: "Im E-Learning-Baukasten finden Sie einfache, von einander unabhängig einsetzbare E-Learning-Applikationen, welche mit wenig Mehraufwand die
Interaktion in Ihrem Unterricht verbessern können". This is the toolset ETHZ is offering to their teachers: so far: Survey (Virginia), SurveyMonkey.com, Plone Portal, Phorum, PmWiki) [Jan 2005].
Finally, here is an index for Quzzing Software.
Tthere is a EU sponsored initiative (start 2005): FLOSS - Free/Libre/Open Source Software: Worldwide impact study that may lead to some good lists.
- Bodington. Quote "Bodington is a free open source Virtual Learning Environment/Learning Management System in use at Universities and Colleges worldwide...". Bodington enables users to upload lecture notes, host discussion fora, publish and manage external links, create interactive resources, e.g. customised logbooks, peer-reviewed reflective diaries/e-portfolios (for PDP), multiple choice tests (QTI), short-answer papers and online surveys. Students can also port work into secure 'pigeon-holes' for marking.[not tested, 2005]
- Sakai. The Sakai Project is a community source software development effort to design, build and deploy a new Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) for higher education. The Project began in January, 2004. [So its a general purpose education portal/groupware, Mai 2005, not tested]
- CopperCore CopperCore, a J2EE runtime engine for IMS Learning Design which can be used to incorporate IMS Learning Design in your own application(s).
The targetted audience are therefore system developers. CopperCore provides three API's and a Test Suite. (So far) supports level A of the IMS Learning Design specification. See also: Learning Network for Learning Design (LN4LD), a community portal sponsored by UNFOLD around Learning Design specification (June 2004 / not tested)
- Fle3: Fle3 > Future Learning Environment is server software for computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Fle3 is Open Source and Free Software released under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). Fle3 is designed to support learner and group centered work that concentrates on creating and developing expressions of knowledge (i.e. knowledge artefacts) and design. Fle3 contains three learning tools and several administration tools. [5/2003 - NOT TESTED yet at TECFA, but it's certainly an interesting proeduct ...]
- ILIAS: ILIAS " ...web-based learning management system (LMS) which was originally developed in the VIRTUS project at the University of Cologne and has now become an Open Source project.
ILIAS consists of tools for learning, authoring, information access and co-operative work, thus presenting an integrated environment for learning and teaching on the Internet..." This "traditional" LMS trives towards IMS (etc. compliance). Not tested at TECFA (6/2003)
- EduZope EduZope is a Zope based "traditional" LMS / LCMS respecting standards (!). Available under GPL. See also this article in Insight (6/2003 - not tested, unknown if software is already available)
- Moodle: Moodle. is a software package for producing internet-based courses and web sites. designed to support a social constructionist pedagogy for students, teachers and developer. Nice weblog-like portal with with a sort of central "activity planner" (per day/week/whatever) where one can insert text, pointers to texts, forums, tests and so on. (11/2002, tested@Tecfa and recommended)
- http://www.olat.org/: "Online Learning And Training (Free and Open Source LMS by University of Zurick). Not tested @ Tecfa, but has good reviews in Switzerland.
- POOL: POOL The
Portal for Online Objects in Learning (POOL) Project is a
consortium of several educational, private and public, sector
organizations to develop an infrastructure for learning object
repositories. Java-based peer-to-peer solution. NOT tested (6/2003)
- Edutella: Edutelle is RDF-based Metadata Infrastructure for P2P Applications. Vision: Provide the metadata services needed to enable interoperability between heterogeneous JXTA applications - not tested (6/2003)
- Open Learning Management System:Open Learning Management System, University of Utah's tool (allows to tie into knowledge from Merlot, Harvey, etc.), Java-based
- Angel:angel, Authenticated Networked Guided Environment for Learnin, interesting because it wants to be both a libraries and learning environments. (not availably yet in spring 2002, commercial later ?)
- CFF- Collaborative Computing Frameworks :CFF- Collaborative Computing Frameworks from Emory Univ. (broken link ?)
- Claroline:Claroline, Open GPLd Platfrom, nice platform from Belgium, only caveat: each course creates a full database in MySQL...
- Ariadne: Ariadne is a whole framework based on the "core" tools which allow indexing, storage, diffusion..., of the various teaching documents. Various authoring tools are also proposed to help the teaching engineers in the creation of these documents.
- ClassWeb:ClassWeb, form UCLA (not tested yet)
- DDT Studio:DDT Studio PHP-Based education portal. See details
- DUCK:DUCK. A php-based practice test system. Not tested.
- ETH World:ETH World. Federal institute of Technology portal Zurich. EPFL in Lausanne
has a similar initiative (E-pfl)
- Educational Content Management System: Educational Content Management System
- Free Style Learning:Free Style Learning German Platform. (not tested, but seems to work fine)
- Ganesha:Ganesha, Popular french open source platform.
- Interactive Learning Environment:Interactive Learning Environment free, open source environment for building web-based learning environments that support arbitrary (instructor-defined) interaction (7/2002 - not tested)
- Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL):Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL) ".. is a full online courseware
system with all the tools needed to follow a
constructivist approach to online learning" ...", programmed in ASP
- AUC - authenticated User community, free intranet system designed for use in a K-12 setting. Cgi script in C/MySQL
- Knowledge Forum:Knowledge Forum a 2nd generation CSILE product. Advanced knowledge forums. commercial (used @ TECFA)
- LINC:LINC is a virtual environment (MOO-based I think), no software available, but mentionned here because I don't think that groupware and portals have the answer for everything :)
- LearnLoop:LearnLoop. Web based GroupWare for collaborative learning. Also on Source Forge (free, don't know if it is a live project)
- Manhattan Virtual Classroom:Manhattan Virtual Classroom (GPLed platform). See also http://sourceforge.net/projects/manhattan
- Open Knowledge Initiative:Open Knowledge Initiative is a collaboration among leading universities and specification and standards organizations to support innovative learning technology in higher education. To be fully implemented in 2006. Software is on SourceForge, but there is
Stellar (MIT) and Coursework (Stanford), see below.
See also MIT Open Course ware. " .... MIT to make nearly all course materials available free on the World Wide Web "
- CourseWork is Standford University's FREE and open source course management. (released in 7/2003). "Using CourseWork, instructors and TAs can set up a course Web site that displays announcements, on-line readings, a dynamic syllabus and schedule, on-line assignments and quizzes, a discussion forum for students, and a grade book. CourseWork is designed both for faculty with little Web experience, who can use CourseWork to develop their Web site quickly, and for expert Web-users, who can use it to organize complex, Web-based materials and link them to Web communication tools...". Java/Tomcat/Oracle based. [not tested @Tecfa, but I trust them :)]. Important: There is a Cambridge (UK) port to PostgreSQL 7.2. Others ?
- dotLRN: .LRN is a fully open source eLearning platform based on the OpenACS portal Framework. See the dotLRN Project Site. They have ties with the Open Knowledge Initiative. Features community tools, calendar/schedule, and file management. Way to go ! [7/2003 - not tested yet]
- OpenGrade:OpenGrade, is software for teachers to keep track of grades. (Perl/TK on Linux, MacOSX)
- OpenLCMS:OpenLCMS, should become a SCORM compliant system (planning stage on 3/2002)
- OpenUSS:OpenUSS. Open Source Software for Universities and Faculties is a component-based platform for communities and elearning. See also the article Learning Java Programming Language with Open Source Products and Technologies
- The UCL Networked Multimedia Research Group:The UCL Networked Multimedia Research Group has some streaming/video/etc technologies for real-time teaching
- Spaghettilearning , free italian (eng/spa/fi/ger) e-learning system based on php-nuke (9/2003 - not tested)
- ATutor Open Source Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS) designed with accessibility and adaptability in mind. IMS content packaging compliant. Free (2003, not yet tested @ tecfa)
- CopperCore CopperCore, a J2EE runtime engine for IMS Learning Design which can be used to incorporate IMS Learning Design in your own application(s). Made by OUNL people who are behind LD. ... not really a portal, but I don't have an other place for this [2/2004]
- The Scholar's Box from The UC Berkely Interactive University Project seeks to translate commonplace teacher practices into the digital realm so that teachers can more easily integrate into teaching the digital cultural objects available from museums and libraries. [2004, don't know if there is any software]
- Action Learning Environment (ALE), an open source environment made by Brad Cox for "building experiential learning environments as interactive as classrooms at their best ..." (March 2005, not tested)
- The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI) is a community of individuals and organizations collaborating on the development of the leading non-proprietary, open source electronic portfolio software available. This project has ties to Sakai. [not tested, 2005]
- elgg Elgg is an electronic portfolio, weblog and social networking system, connecting learners and creating communities of learning. Open source, LAMP-based [not tested, 2005]
- WSDL4J Web Services Description Language for Java Toolkit (WSDL4J) allows the creation, representation, and manipulation of WSDL documents describing services
- Apache WSIF The Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF) is a simple Java API for invoking Web services (based on WSDL).
- UDDI4JUDDI4J is a Java class library that provides an API to interact with a UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) registry
- Apache Axis is a SOAP implementation. (the early project was called Apache/Soap)
- SpinLizard 2Doo. To Do List / Task Manager - free single user Windows (not a portal/groupware).
- MyThreadsFlexible web based links manager including "what's new" etc.. Yahoo-like, but without aliases (symbolic links between links) and this is what I would need ...
- incDirectory Links manager (php/mysql). The same author also made an XML-RPC library.
- WSN Links. an advanced PHP/MySQL indexing script, claims to have aliases ! [9/2005] not checked so far, but does look like the best available thing
- MonAlbum. PhP/MySQL based photo album
- BINS, Photo Album for Unix, needs ImageMagik, has also a Linux GUI client to generate/configure (not tested)
- Castor from ExoLab.
Quote "the shortest path between Java[tm] objects, XML documents,
SQL tables and LDAP directories. It provides Java to XML binding,
Java to SQL/LDAP persistence, and then some more" (not tested). Not
at publication framework, but can come handy it seems.
- PHPSurveyor Free php/MySQL survey manager. Seems to be well made and popular [used a bit at Tecfa]. Note: If you can't install software there are also free online surveys, like freeonlinesurveys.com
- phpESP, php Easy Survey Package, a other free survey package [tested and used TECFA. Works fine. Make a test before you use it, e.g. you may want to avoid multiple selections. ]. There is also a PostNuke module which doesn't work as well as this one (when last tested of course !).
- SurveyMaker a commercial? PHP application designed to generate and handle surveys, polls, sets of questions, or MCQ (multiple-choice question). [not tested]
- CRM, This tool is to be used in a trusted commercial environment for logging and tracing customer requirements, questions, complaints etcetera. Runs on apache/php/mysql and needs a CSS compliant browser - (not tested)
- Beesie the Annihilator, is a web-based grading program (good beta in 2003)
- OpenGrade,s software for teachers to keep track of grades. It runs on Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD. Perl/Tk based. See also: its Freshmeat entry(10/2004 / not tested)
- Linux in Education Portal (has links for educational software, etc., not tested / feb 2002)
- phpmygrades is an online grading book that can use multiple types of databases. It is meant to be used mainly with a Web browser, but other methods of accessing data are possible. XML can also be used as a storage medium. [alpha 6/2005 - not tested]
4. Examples of Portals
(info, community, weblog, commerce, combined, ...)
(Of course there are portals for education/educators etc. These are not all mentionned here. Also this section is very rarely updated !)
(only simple ones)
5. Links
See also general Webmaster's indexes or more specialized things like
serverpages.com, in particular for do-it your own with PHP, JSP, whatever.
- CMS Matrix, Good index of open source CMS (2006)
- opensourceCMS This site was created to give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best PHP/Mysql open source and free php/mysql based software systems in the world. You can log in as the administrator to any site here, thus allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs. (!) Rebuilt every 2 hours / 2004. GOOD !!
- Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) in Java
- Content Management Frameworks/Systems Overview (2004)
- CMS Watch A short list of 40 commercial and open source products (2004)
- CMS Directory" CMSDirectory(TM) is an independent source of information, news, opinions, articles, links and events about (Enterprise) Content Management Systems (CM, DM's & Commerce) ..." Also has some opensource entries. (2004)
- CMSReview Feature charts, reviews and resources (but focus on large commercial systems !) (2004)
- Open Source Content Management System List (last seen update 7/2003)
- Topicus open source workflow Good resource site for Open source workflow initiatives (2004)
- Web:Portal @ LinuxLinks (quite complete list of Portal softs)
- Weblogs - Articles & Analysis (good list at WebCrawler). Also a list of tools & hosts
- Tools at www.lights.com/weblogs
- DMOZ Application Server Zone
- Application Server Overview
and Groupware Servers at ServerWatch
- Corporate Portals / Information Filtering. Index of vendors at the data warehousing Center (good site for data retrieval & Analysis etc.)
- Best Java Application Server 2000
- AIIM (The Association for Information and Image
Management) has articles and other stuff
- Various P2P, e.g. see open2p2.com
- News Syndication
- Weblog Madness: Roll Your own
- Ammai.com, IT resource portal
Mostly centered around community building for now
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Last modified: Fri Sep 29 10:30:15 CEST 2006
D.K.S.
Portals Pointers @ TECFA